A Developmental Framework for Adolescent Leaders for Sustainability

Adult leadership has been a research focus for some time and, more recently, some researchers have turned their attention to adult leadership as it relates to sustainability. However, there has been far less research in the field of child and adolescent leadership, with only a few researchers addressing adolescent leadership for sustainability. In addition, while there are a number of development frameworks for adult leaders, there are none in the field of adolescent leadership for sustainability. This paper helps to address the gap in the knowledge base in this field and, in particular, proposes a framework with five different levels of adolescent leadership for sustainability, as well as strategies to help motivate adolescents to progress through these different levels of leadership. This framework will have practical implications for educators and teachers who are developing and conducting education programs with adolescent leaders by providing a number of unique instruments and tools.